Commentary and analysis to persuade people to become socialist and to act for themselves, organizing democratically and without leaders, to bring about a world of common ownership and free access. We are solely concerned with building a movement of socialists for socialism. We are not reformists with a programme of policies to patch up capitalism.

Friday, February 27, 2015

The Last Colony

What many people don’t know is that Africa still has one
last colonized country. Spain was the colonizer of Western Sahara until 40
years ago, and that’s when neighboring countries Morocco and Mauritania took
control. Mauritania pulled out, thus it’s been just Morocco as the
occupier/coloniser (in Polisario’s words) for the past four decades.

The people of Western Sahara waged a long and brutal
guerilla war against the much larger and better financed Moroccan forces for
years. However, the United Nations brokered a ceasefire agreement in 1991.
Since that time, attempts to peacefully resolve the dispute have been
unsuccessful.

At issue are the terms of holding a U.N.-monitored
referendum that would allow the people of Western Sahara to decide their
governance, with options such as complete Moroccan control, complete Saharawi
independence or a limited autonomy for the Saharawi people and continued
Moroccan control. Meanwhile, thousands of Saharawi people live in refugee camps
in Algeria outside Tindouf and are almost completely dependent on foreign aid
for even their most basic needs, such as food.

The Moroccan Wall, also known as “The Berm,” is
approximately 1,670 miles long. The Moroccans began construction of the wall in
the 1980s. The wall is patrolled by armed guards and effectively cuts off
Saharawis from active mine workings and fisheries along the Atlantic coast. Western
Sahara is rich with phosphates, which are used in the creation of energy
sources. In addition to armed guards, Morocco has also buried millions of
landmines. The exact figure varies by source, but it ranges between 5 million
and 7 million. Furthermore, because this is the desert and sand shifts, the
precise locations of the landmines change.